[Discussion] Who has had experience with researching/mapping their family tree?

Until recently, I didn't have much information at all regarding my family history. All I really knew was that I have Irish and Swedish roots (from my mother's side) and Jordanian roots (from my father's side.) One of my uncles recently found a piece of paper that was owned by my great grandmother and it had a small family tree on it, but it was just enough information to get me started on doing further research to find out more about our family. Now I'm hooked. I spent the entire day on Friday trying to research online. However, I feel like I could use some advice. To anyone who has done research into their family tree, what databases have you used? Do you have to eventually invest money into it? Many of the databases that I am coming across only allow limited access. I don't know if there is a better direction that I should be going in other than searching the interwebs.

So far, I've discovered that my great great great grandfather was from Tipperary and my great great great grandmother was from Dublin and came to America in 1892. This is amazing to me since I went from having zero family history to this! I have a whole string of family members that were from Finland and Sweden, but I am having difficulty finding information about them.

Am I the only one who finds this stuff interesting? Does everyone already know their family tree and I am just late to the game? Haha